Wimbledon 2022: Jannik Sinner holds on to sink Carlos Alcaraz to make quarter-finals at SW19

Jannik Sinner produced a performance of maturity to beat Carlos Alcaraz 6-1 6-4 6(8)-7 6-3 to progress to the quarter-finals of Wimbledon where he will face either Novak Djokovic or Tim van Rijthoven.

Alcaraz came into the match with a minor psychological advantage, holding a 1-0 lead in the pair’s head-to-head, having won their previous encounter at last year’s Paris Masters.

Both players are relative rookies on the surface: it was Alcaraz’s sixth tour-level match on grass, and Sinner’s eighth. However, the Italian’s excellent return game, coupled with his impressive backcourt coverage, unsettled and nullified Alcaraz for large swathes of the contest.

Alcaraz had applied some early pressure, with the Italian forced to defend the first game – and his serve – from 0-30, but it was serene progress from there, taking two of the three break points he fashioned to seal a dominant first set.

The first came in the fourth game of the set, after an errant forehand afforded the world No. 13 a break opportunity, and when Alcaraz’s usually reliable drop shot netted, Sinner had the ascendancy. He backed it up in the sixth game when a long backhand and a double fault from his opponent offered up two break points. The Italian would take the second, putting an exclamation mark on a dominant first set, sealing it with a thunderous ace to take a one-set lead in just 31 minutes.

The No. 10 seed took the first game of the second set to go a set and a break up after more uncharacteristic errors from Alcaraz that offered up two further break points. And when the Spaniard was unable to dig out a testing return at his feet, the 19-year-old had it all to do.

Despite minimal success, the Spanish sensation maintained his tactic of trying to hit through his opponent, but Sinner’s court coverage held Alcaraz – bar one break point in the second game – at arm’s length for the remainder of the set, and the Italian moved to a two-set advantage.

The 19-year-old Alcaraz continued to chase – and miss – the lines in the opening game of the third set as further unforced errors left him with three break points to defend. And defend them he did, vacating the back of the court and showing his sleight of hand at the net to haul himself back into the game and keep the third set on serve.

The rest of the set went with serve. Though after being so composed for much of the encounter, Sinner double faulted in consecutive service games – the eighth and the 10th – and while Alcaraz was unable to capitalise, the Spaniard had a touch more of the momentum going into the tie-break.

Alcaraz had three set points to send it to a fourth but, having defended the first two behind some solid serving, the third save came from a Sinner forehand missile that whistled past the Spaniard before he had registered it. And – fittingly – an unforced error from Alcaraz offered Sinner his first match point. He would not be able to take it. And when he was unable to take a second match point, Alcaraz would make him pay to send it to a fourth set.

The momentum seemed like it had undoubtedly shifted, and having faced just one break point over the course of the entire first three sets, Sinner would face two in the opening game of the fourth. He would defend them both, but Alcaraz would again drop serve – this time in the fourth game – after following some errant hitting with a double fault.

Yet Sinner would offer three immediate break-back points, but he would fight back from the abyss of 0-40 to claim the game, winning it after coming out on top of an astonishing rally, and would hold to love in the next game, meaning Alcaraz had to serve to stay in the match. The Italian would fashion a further three match points on his opponent’s serve, but was unable to convert.

However he held his nerve, remaining composed, and after seeing off one break point in the next game, took the match on his sixth match point opportunity.

The win moves Sinner to a 31-8 record for the year ahead of his last-eight tie against either the defending champion Djokovic or Dutch wildcard van Rijthoven.

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